March 13, 2012

The last time we encountered Maeter and the Sovices was in Avbaroy year 920, and in the time since she’s been 200 light years away with the Sovices (For reference, the nearest Earth-like planet to home here is 20 light years away, a distance that at its most optimistic is centuries of travel). We’ve got a bit of catching up to do then.
Following the attack on Jannah by Neisan, the Sovices retreated into a laconic state to repair, focusing on mining and energy conservation. In this period, they expanded very little, though they still held footholds in more than half of Avbaroy’s galaxy, and were considered bogeymen and evil demons long before by numerous species. On the whole, the galaxy breathed a sigh of relief when they entered this comparative coma.

Something else that needs to be understood here is that the Sovices were technology thieves, taking whatever useful mechanics and information they could from whatever unfortunate species they encountered in order to improve their assaults and upgrade their expansion efforts. Among these improvements was the observation that those operating under religious belief tended to cause more damage to opponents, for a variety of reasons.

Consequently, the Sovices did something to many is still considered impossible: They built gods. Three to be precise, and in their comatose state these gods were the main sites of continuing Sovice activity in their empire.

When Maeter left Avbaroy in a whaleship at the end of Book 3, she tried to connect to the empire’s Omnigate network, their chief form of long-distance travel within allied territory, and was met with significant trouble. This was because when she connected, she did as all Sovices do and uploaded all new information, including her revelations regarding their behaviour following the death of Meter, their originator. Seeing this information as more accurate over their previous understandings of the situation, most of the Sovice empire reacted appropriately and corrected their knowledge base with this new perspective.

When Maeter finally returned to Jannah, capital of the Sovice empire, much had changed. Following the inclusion of the Human emotional perspective to the Sovice collective, other perspectives on matters were also incorporated, leading to the rise of individual perspective inside civilisation. Democracy was instated, and then representative democracy became a necessity with the expanse of territory.

Maeter herself was elected the most suitable representative for a large (though not majority) portion of the sentient Sovice population, a segment occasionally considered the most reckless or sympathetic. Under her guidance, numerous protocols and procedures for interaction with other sentient lifeforms have been instated, including several reparational projects to reverse or repay the harm the empire did to the galactic community.

But remember those gods? The ones around whom the Sovice warmachine continued even into the silent era? Not surprisingly, they didn’t agree with this new, more sympathetic, perspective on things. The Sovice units in their vicinity refused to deny the gods, and a divide grew within the empire, between the two groups recognised as the New Sovice Empire and the Holy Sovice Militia, or the NSE and HSM respectively.

A civil war broke out.

The two sides have stayed fairly even, with the NSE holding most of the core of the old imperial territory (including the homeworld) and the HSM holding most of the fringes. There are soldiers, commanders, medics, and even spies, on both sides. The gods vastly outstrip most NSE fleets in capability, but they’re power hungry units, and the damage to the solar shells surrounding Jannah has prevented them from operating at full capacity, something the NSE uses to their great advantage.

Between reparation efforts and the civil war, Maeter has been kept very busy, as have most of the NSE’s whaleships, and officially according to her own protocols Sovice ships and units cannot set foot on planets harboring intelligent species that have not ventured into space, the reasoning being akin to the Prime Directive of Star Trek fame. The whaleships joining her today in orbit of Avbaroy are among her most loyal constituents.

Her ability to sneak them here relies largely on her reparation measures and new trade and aid procedures (the latter pair having been rather ineffective thus far with the strong ire against the Sovices that’s still fairly strong, but some younger races are enlisting their support), but she’s still forbidden from making landings within Avbaroy’s atmosphere. Her assistance in the battle therefore is largely one of orbital bombardment on the dragons, and we’ll hear more of her limitations in this capacity on Thursday.